


Lost and Found

by Howlingdawn



Series: Whumptober 2020 [17]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Human Castiel (Supernatural), Hurt/Comfort, Whumptober 2020, i decided cas needed a friend so i'm giving him one, set somewhere between 9x03 and 9x09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:33:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27139424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howlingdawn/pseuds/Howlingdawn
Summary: Cas didn't expect to meet another hunter when trying to hunt a wraith that came to town. Turns out, though, she might just be exactly the friend he needs.(Whumptober Day 20 - Field Medicine)
Relationships: Castiel (Supernatural) & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Whumptober 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949191
Kudos: 2
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Been rewatching a bunch of Cas eps before the end, and I jumped from Cas being on his own in s15 to homeless human Cas, and it just heckin hurt me how lonely Cas is without Jack and the Winchesters, so I decided he needed a friend, and here she is

“C’mon, sit down over here, ya fool.”

Cas did as he was told, hand pressed to his wounded arm, heart still pounding from the fight, dropping into the chair with a _thud_ that resonated painfully in his pounding head. “Sam and Dean make this look… much easier.”

Jaiden pulled a small kit from within her jacket, setting it and her blood-soaked silver knife on the table. “Yeah, well, wraiths ain’t nothing to be messing with if you don’t know what you’re doing,” she said gruffly, prying up his hand to look at the gash on his arm. “Looks nasty, but the bleeding’s pretty much stopped. You’ll be fine with some stitches.”

“Stitches,” Cas echoed, looking at his injury. _I could’ve healed this in an instant once. And I_ do _know what I’m doing. Just… not like this._

“What, you scared of needles?” Jaiden teased, rolling up his sleeve and flipping open the kit, unpacking an antiseptic wipe.

“Needing them is new to me,” Cas answered, wincing at the sting of the wipe. “All of this is new to me.”

Jaiden tossed the used wipe aside, reaching for the needle. “What, hunting? Could’ve guessed that by the way you threw yourself at that thing. You fought like a damn action hero.”

Cas furrowed his brows, wondering at the discrepancy between Dean’s love of movies and the disdain in her voice. “That’s… not a compliment. Is it?”

“Hell no, it ain’t a compliment,” Jaiden grumbled, pushing back her unruly blonde hair with a calloused, wrinkled hand before setting to work. “Action heroes are reckless idiots. They’d get killed if they didn’t have writers and sequels protecting ‘em.”

Cas clenched his fist against the pain. “Don’t let Dean hear you say that,” he tried to joke.

It came out flat, any mirth torn away not just by the pain in his arm, but by the ache of abandonment. Being human hadn’t seemed quite so overwhelming at the bunker with Sam and Dean at his side, but alone out here, trying to fight even just a common monster, unable to count on them for backup…

“You wouldn’t be talking about Dean Winchester, would ya?”

Cas eyed her warily. “I am.”

Jaiden paused her stitching, looking at him with dark eyes weathered by a lifetime of hardship. “And needing stitches is new to you.”

Cas resisted the urge to glance towards his angel blade, glinting tantalizingly in the corner, flung aside during the fight. “Yes.”

“Your name ain’t really Steve, is it? You’re their angel. Castiel.”

She didn’t _sound_ like she wanted revenge for anything – maybe his instincts hadn’t been wrong this time. “Yes,” he conceded.

“So where the hell are they, and why the hell are you human?”

Cas looked away, trying not to remember the feeling of Metatron stealing his grace, or Dean telling him to leave. “It’s… a long story.”

“You goin’ back to them when you’re done here?”

The words slipped out before he could stop them: “I wish I could, but no.”

She narrowed her eyes, but she simply let out a noncommittal grunt before resuming her work, and this time when he winced, she took a moment to give him a reassuring pat. “You got anywhere to go once we take care of the body?”

He lowered his head, overcome once again by the endless shame of homelessness, longing for the simple comfort of a bed he didn’t have to hide. “No.”

Jaiden pursed her lips, falling silent, and the silence remained as she finished patching him up and they disposed of the dead wraith. It was only when they were done, Cas taking a deep breath as he prepared to trudge back to the gas station, that she spoke again. “So you’re really an angel, huh?”

Cas crossed his arms over his growling stomach. “I was.”

Leaning against her rusty blue truck, Jaiden considered him, taking her golden locket into her fingers, and gradually, a bittersweet smile began to soften her hardened features. “My daughter… her name was Angela.”

Cas offered her a smile, tiny but genuine. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“Guess I believed in angels once,” she said, squeezing the locket tight. “And my girl would want me to do it again.”

Dropping the locket, she cleared her throat and pushed off her truck, pulling open the passenger side door and gesturing inside. “Get in, kid.”

Cas’s mouth hung open for a second before he found his voice. “Are you certain?”

“You look like hammered crap, and you shouldn’t be alone if you’ve got a concussion,” she said. “Besides, based on the way you handled that wraith, I figure I can take you in a fight if you turn out to be evil.”

Cas chuckled, walking hesitantly back to the truck. “I was a warrior of God for thousands of years. I doubt it.”

“Keep telling yourself that, kid,” she said, clapping him on the shoulder, giving him a push towards the seat, and shaking her head affectionately as she headed for the driver’s seat. “Let’s go get some food in ya.”

Settling into the truck, closing the door behind him as Jaiden cranked up the radio, for the first time in far too long, Cas started to feel that maybe, just maybe, things were starting to look up.


End file.
